"Dear Customers, Please Go Away!"

I went to JoAnn Fabrics with my wife Chris this evening so she could get some material for a project she's working on.  The store was a complete zoo, with a line about 18 people deep at the cutting table.  When Chris finally got up to the table, she mentioned that she hadn't anticipated it being this crowded.  The lady, one of only two working the table, laughed and said "Oh, it's always this crowded a few days before Halloween!"  Hmmm...  So, they KNOW it is going to be crowded, and yet they are obviously understaffed?  Who possibly thinks this is a good idea?  Was there really nobody else that the manager could have scheduled to work this evening?

Now, we get mailers from JoAnn probably once every few weeks, with coupons and discount offers and advertisements for all their sale items.  They are not stupid about marketing, and they are obviously spending money to get people in the door.  But once they get them there, *even when they know they are coming*, they don't then have enough staff to enable buying at the customer's pace.

It got better, though.  Starting at about 8:15 or 8:30, they began announcing on the store P.A. that "JoAnn Fabrics will be closing at 9:00.  Please finish your shopping and bring your final selections to the checkout."  Of course, a lot of people were still waiting at the cutting table to be *able* to take their selections to the checkout.  But more importantly, having gone to great marketing effort to get customers in the door, they were now not only understaffed to help them, but they were actively shoving them out the door because it was approaching their arbitrary closing time.

When we finally got through the line to the cashier (they had only one working the checkout, on this known-busy day) I mentioned to him that it seemed a shame to be shoving people out the door when they were there actively trying to give the store more money.  He said it was too bad, but they had to lock the door at 9:00 PM.  He had, either through conditioning or poor training or simple lack of imagination or care, come to the conclusion that the purpose of the business at which he worked was to close the door at 9:00 PM, and not to sell as much stuff as people possibly wanted to buy.  Now, it if had been a department store, or some other type of retailer where a lot of people were just browsing, I could understand.  Shooing the recreational shoppers out the door isn't going to cost a lot of lost opportunity.  But from what I saw this evening, most of those people were there with intent to buy.  They wanted to get more.  They were looking for things to purchase.  And they were being told, "Dear Customers, Please Go Away."  It was kind of staggering.